How Good Was Triple H Actually?

A lot of people say that Triple H was only truly, consistently great for one (1) calendar year - 2000 - which would drastically undermine his G.O.A.T. case. Is that true?

Let’s break those years down:

1995 - You can’t reasonably expect much from Paul Levesque’s first few months as Hunter Hearst Helmsley; the performer was still green, the character he was asked to portray terrible.  

1996 - He still wasn’t over, nor particularly good. No standout matches, no redeeming televised segments. Despite this, perhaps since roster depth was so poor, he was earmarked to win the King of the Ring tournament before his office “burial” - which lasted three months and culminated in him winning the Intercontinental title. Scores of boring, plodding matches. 

1997 - He still wasn’t over, which is wild, since if you believe Bret Hart, this was the year in which Hunter started to make his political moves. 1997 is the year Hunter started to get there - very slowly, in his trademark style. His MSG Raw match against Cactus Jack was genuinely great, totally wild, and as the mate of Shawn Michaels in D-Generation X, Hunter displayed glimpses of an obnoxious personality. He knew how to draw heat. 

1998 - He was over! At last. Triple H was a douchey cool guy not beloved but enjoyed by the new college-age bros in the stands. They thought he was a stitch. He was still really quite boring between the ropes, requiring a ladder to land his one truly great match. He excelled, if that’s the right word, on the new, edgy, lowbrow Monday Night Raw. Convincing the crowd that you were going to get your knob out after the commercial break was a barometer of success in a very weird time. 

1999 - There was still a leaden quality to Triple H’s matches. Many people, including Steve Austin, didn’t take Triple H’s new serious heel persona seriously - no matter how much he swore. 

2000 - His best year ever. One of the best years of any WWE wrestler ever. Triple H, with his rebuilt, hulking physique, was incredible. A warlord on offence, a great stooge when he met his match. Dynamic. Exuded a true main event presence. 2000 was the year in which a man with such a tryhard quality was effortlessly great. 

2001 - His excellent form continued until he was cut down by a major injury - with some bad omens. He stopped showing ass. In the ‘Two Man Power Trip’ alongside Steve Austin, Hunter indulged his dour hard man fantasies. The results ranged from boring to cringeworthy before and after the bell rang. 

2002 - Very uneven at best. He was slower, having returned in better cosmetic shape than anything else. SummerSlam was outstanding, emotive. Almost everything else he did with Shawn Michaels was overlong, histrionic. Triple H either tried to undermine Chris Jericho at WrestleMania, or was incapable of performing as a main-event level babyface. Not good either way. 

2003 - His worst year ever. One of the worst years of any WWE wrestler ever. Interminable dud upon interminable dud. Irredeemable. Tedious. Unacceptable. Seemed to go out of his way to make his peers look worthless, which was massively ironic, since he was cosplaying as Ric Flair. The Scott Steiner debacle can be explained, but the Booker T and Goldberg matches were vile. 

2004 - More of the unacceptable same outside of the WrestleMania 20 main event (and to a lesser extent Backlash). Again: if an earnest attempt was made to put Randy Orton over, Triple H was useless. If no attempt was made, that’s far worse. Outside of the ring, synonymous with the opening 20 minute promo, Triple H was unbearable. 

2005 - The lead in his ass was surgically removed in 2005: Hunter’s second best year ever. In a subversion of 2000, it was Triple H’s turn to elevate somebody else to the main event scene: Batista. Triple H should not have bled at WrestleMania 21, but was otherwise immaculate in their series. Why didn’t he attempt this more often? He was demonstrably capable. 

2006 - The year of the first post-Attitude Era DX reunion was, in a word, excruciating. A terrible case for Triple H as a babyface star, his comedy was obnoxious and unfunny. Smug and insufferable, Triple H was also one of Mr. McMahon’s worst opponents. The best Mr. McMahon matches played with black comedy and genuinely unhinged action set pieces; Triple H played it broad and juvenile. 

2007 - Missed a sizeable chunk through injury, and didn’t return in amazing form. Peaked at “very competent if uninspiring”. This becomes a trend. 

2008 - Very competent if uninspiring matches with questionable results. Got his win back over John Cena. Miracle match with Great Khali. Seemed threatened by Edge and Jeff Hardy. And this was one of his better years!

2009 - Another DX reunion. It was only slightly less offensive. It followed an interminable disaster of a series with Randy Orton. It was overcooked, bland, embarrassing. Triple H dominated a stale main event scene.

2010 - Ended the year away from the ring as he prioritised becoming even more influential outside of it. This was the formal beginning of his corporate career (emphasis on formal). Triple H did strong work against Sheamus before his long hiatus. 

2011 - Which was subsequently undone so that Triple H could build himself up for WrestleMania. 2011 was indefensible even by his standards: he buried the entire locker room to justify getting the Undertaker match, scored a visual pin over CM Punk before putting him in his place at Night of Champions, and ended the year doing something boring even by his standards with Kevin Nash. 

2012 - A part-timer at this point, the song remains the same. Uneven at best, again. Was part of the best false finish in WWE history at WrestleMania 28 before entering a performance so slow and emotionless against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam that he elicited no reaction whatsoever when he teased retiring with tears in his eyes. 

2013 - Triple H didn’t do much, but everything he did was awful. Defeated Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania before doing the job at the smaller Extreme Rules show in yet another political play. The first match was quieter than some pandemic Raws. Not that anybody else could have done much better, but his efforts in putting Curtis Axel over were hilariously ineffective. 

2014 - An incredible return to form. Was finally bullied into doing the job to Daniel Bryan, and he did it brilliantly. He also did back-to-back jobs for the Shield alongside Batista and Randy Orton. Both matches were awesome. 

2015 - Wrestled one match all year, against Sting, whom he defeated because WCW had the temerity to counter-programme WWE 20 years prior. Match was dumb and bad. 

2016 - Classic Trips: he didn’t make Roman Reigns look particularly good, at all, but did everything possible to tear the house down with Dean Ambrose a month earlier so it looked like he wasn’t the problem. 

2017 - Classic Trips: he silenced an entire stadium against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. 

2018 - Entered a potential career-best individual performance against Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 34, selling her barrage of punches like he was staring down a firing squad. Ended the year with his dignity and pectoral muscle in tatters as one quarter of the hilariously bad DX Vs. Brothers of Destruction match at Crown Jewel. 

2019 - While he did a couple of matches at house shows and worked Randy Orton in Saudi Arabia, his match against Batista at WrestleMania 35 was a fitting end: it stunk the joint out and went on far too long. 

So that’s two great full years as a full-time wrestler (2000, 2005), one excellent six-month period (first half of 2001), another very good year in spite of some self-serving nonsense (2008), and a great quarter as a part-timer (2014). 

That’s…that’s it?

Overall: a 6.5/10 who sometimes felt like an 8, more often felt like worse than nothing.